Greg Eidson's picture
Greg Eidson from Los Angeles, CA is reading THOMAS PYNCHON'S BLEEDING EDGE December 22, 2011 - 6:00pm

Anybody dig PT Anderson? 

If so, what is your favorite movie and why . . . 

Brian Ingham's picture
Brian Ingham from Stillwater Oklahoma is reading There is No Year by. Blake Butler December 22, 2011 - 9:34pm

Boogie Nights is definetly my favorite of his films. You can't hate on a movie that revived Burt Reynolds career.

I love There Will Be Blood too. I read Upton Sinclair's novel Oil and didn't realize until recently that this movie is loosely based off the book. I have yet to see Magnolia(this is a PT Anderson movie, right?) or Punch Drunk Love, but I'm a fan of Adam Sandler, and I think he deserves more credit for his acting ability then he's given.

.'s picture
. December 22, 2011 - 9:59pm

I agreed completely with you up until Adam Sandler. It almost undermined everything you said. It was like hooking up with Jessica Alba but she has vag warts so you can only do other stuff. Or something. 

How great is Daniel Day Lewis though. Even the scenes were he's just staring off. Brilliant. 

Raelyn's picture
Raelyn from California is reading The Liars' Club December 22, 2011 - 10:00pm

Magnolia (indeed PT Anderson) and Punch Drunk Love were amazing! I've already made it known on a few threads that Magnolia is one of my favorite movies. 

MattF's picture
MattF from Tokyo is reading Borges' Collected Fictions December 22, 2011 - 10:00pm

Big fan.  I think Boogie Nights is his best, but Punch Drunk Love is probably my favorite for its sheer unpredictablity/bizzareness.  It's a difficult film to explain to people, but everyone I've lent it to has liked it.  (Though I'm sure there's probably an equally large audience of people who hate it.)

aliensoul77's picture
aliensoul77 from a cold distant star is reading the writing on the wall. December 22, 2011 - 10:47pm

Boogie Nights and Magnolia.

Brian Ingham's picture
Brian Ingham from Stillwater Oklahoma is reading There is No Year by. Blake Butler December 22, 2011 - 11:01pm

I'm not saying Sandler is an Oscar worthy actor, and for the most part he does play the Exact same character everytime, but ever since Funny People I've had a lot more respect for him as an actor. I've never seen PDL or Reign over Me(i think thats the name...him and Don Cheadle) so I don't have too many examples of his serious work, but with Funny People, to me at least, he showcased alot more range and depth than normal. He played a darker, morally and physically flawed character, compared to waterboy/little nicky/happy gilmore/all the other goofy ass movies he does. Some of the credit for this movie should probably go to Judd Apatow as well, but I was very impressed with Sandler. Anyways.... Jessica Alba with vag warts....man, that would be the worst.

Greg Eidson's picture
Greg Eidson from Los Angeles, CA is reading THOMAS PYNCHON'S BLEEDING EDGE December 24, 2011 - 8:45pm

I really loved Punch Drunk Love, I thought Sandler did a great job in that. 

PT Anderson was talking about how in all of Sandlers movies, there's a great suffering to his characters, a creeping anger and self-loating anxiety. And he wanted to explore that more in Punch Drunk Love. Not only the acting in that film, but the panning shots, the music, editing, I thought was so chaotic, and really put you in his characters perspective of life. Everywhere you turn there's something else to turn your stress knob up. It's a backwards Romantic Comedy. 

But other than that, I loved Boogie Nights. I just watched it two nights ago. And laughed and then got really depressed. It was great. His sequences, his long scenes are so well planned, and have a structure to them. There's one where the three characters, Dirk Diggler, and the drug dealer and John C. Reilly's character, and the little chinese kid throwing the firecrackers around as they pop, and leave you with this creeping feeling that something bad is going to happen soon. Which it does, you're just waiting for it. 

Okay I'm done rambling. Anyways, loved that movie. 

.'s picture
. December 24, 2011 - 9:30pm

Okay, I haven't seen PDL and I've been more than curious to see the movie for the reasons listed.

Though if I seen it, I'd feel the same way about Jim Carrey and the movie Sunshine of an Eternal Spotless Mind. I think Carrey was great in the movie, in the same concept, but I also feel the same way about the movie 23 and his acting. I think the same theory applies. 

spence's picture
spence from planet is reading Books December 25, 2011 - 11:49am

I love all of his movies. There's so much going on in them. Watch Boogie Nights, how he does these super long shots in a house full of people and when the camera gets to another room, it's full of people doing things right on cue. It seems like such a straightforward story but there's so much going on, same with Magnolia. And he's not afraid to drop in these bizarre moments with over the top music and it works. Like when we first see William H Macy has a crush on the bartender with braces in Magnolia. It was such a weird moment but it strikes you.

razorsharp's picture
razorsharp from Ohio is reading Atlas Shrugged December 25, 2011 - 1:36pm

@jack: You should definitely check out Punch Drunk Love, man. I'm not a big fan of Adam Sandler movies but he was phenomenal in that one. Sandler's actually a good actor, it's unfortunate that he so rarely takes acting seriously. I think it just has to do with money. His films that suck make a lot of money while his good films don't. I remember seeing him in some interview where he was asked about his next movie and he described it along the lines of something stupid he was paid a lot of money to do. He wasn't eager to talk about the film at all, even though that was probably the reason they had him there.

Greg Eidson's picture
Greg Eidson from Los Angeles, CA is reading THOMAS PYNCHON'S BLEEDING EDGE December 25, 2011 - 9:45pm

Yeah, I mean, I'm a huge sucker for easy comedy sometimes. Sandlers latest movies have really really sucked though. Big Daddy and Happy Gilmore are classics in my book. But this Jack and Jill shit, where he plays his sister. Oh my god, so terrible. You know a comedy career is going down hill once they start playing both the male and female roles. It's almost a gimmick. You should see Dave Chappelle talk about that on Inside the Actors Studio, on getting men to dress like woman, it's very interesting. There's definitely a strange pattern there. It's not even funny, just bizarre. 

But all of PT Anderson's films are great. I have to re-watch Magnolia, but I'm pretty stoked on Punch Drunk Love and There Will Be Blood right now. 

Done rambling for now . . .